If you want followers, it helps to know where to look.

In Part I of this article, we found that you can grow your following by 100 in a single day with a strong account, and we looked at a basic Twitter follow strategy to use. In Part 2, we explored how to use simple math to super-charge that strategy.

Now let’s look at where to find the best accounts where the numbers will work to your advantage.

Where to find people to follow

There are many ways to find lists of accounts to follow.

A great first start is to search Twitter for a hashtag related to your area of interest. For instance, I might go to #AmWriting or #BloggingTips or #IndieAuthor. That ensures that the universe I am working in will be mostly relevant people who might be interested in following me back.

Step two is to choose between “top”, “latest”, “people”, “photos” and “videos”. I like the latest tweets column, as it keeps feeding me new targets. But the people column is also a great place to start, because they typically have the hashtag in their bio or are frequent users of the hashtag.

Step three is to hover your cursor over the profile pic or name of the first entry. Notice the information you will get:

• the profile bio, to confirm if this is the type of account you want to follow
• the number of other accounts the account is following
• the number of accounts this account follows

This is all you need to know in order to decide whether to follow the account or not. If it’s a relevant account with the right following-to-follower ratio and you want to follow the account, don’t! Do not follow it yet.

Visit one good profile to find many great accounts to follow

Do this instead. Click on the profile pic or name to visit the account.

Why? Because relevant accounts with the right following-to-follower ratio usually lead to several similar accounts.

When you land on the account’s profile page, there are four places you can find good accounts to follow.

The first place to look is in the sidebar to the right. You will see three “You might like” accounts, often with similar follower numbers and ratios to the account you are visiting. Once again, hover to see the account information and decide whether to follow. (You could also visit these accounts, diving another level, but let’s not go down that rabbit hole right now.)

Not yet. Do not follow the account you are visiting yet.

The second place to find accounts to follow on this profile page is in the tweets. Whenever this account mentions or retweets another account, there is a good chance the other accounts are relevant and a surprisingly good number of them that will conform to your desired following-to-follower ratio.

After scrolling a bit, you will come across the third place to find potential follow targets: “Who to follow”. What Twitter really means is “whom to follow”, but let’s put aside Twitter’s horrible abuse of grammar. Once again, there are three accounts with often similar follower numbers and ratios. As before, hover, choose and follow.

If this account profile is delivering lots of great target accounts in its mentions and retweets, keep scrolling and following. I have on occasion come across accounts that have delivered dozens of great follow targets. When you are done, go back to the page top.

Now follow the account for the page you’re on.

And wait a moment.

And…poof!

Three more accounts will pop up under a hitherto hidden heading “Suggested”, the fourth place to find potential follow targets. These are often the best targets. And that’s why you waited. If you had followed this account from elsewhere (such as from the hashtag search results), you would not have seen the suggested accounts. Had you followed this account right away when visiting the profile page, these suggested accounts often would simply duplicate the “Who to follow” and “You might like” accounts. By waiting, you get more accounts to follow from this one page.

Hidden spots to find great accounts to follow

The fifth and sixth places to find accounts to follow are – wait! Didn’t I say there are only four places?

Well, there are two more hidden places. After the “You might like” you will see “Show more”. Click that for more fairly on-theme and on-number accounts.

Also after the “Who to follow” you will see “Show more” again. Click that for still more fairly on-theme and on-number accounts. There will be follow recommendations “similar to” the account you just came from. There will also be “Because you follow” so-and-so recommendations. These often respect your follower ratio preferences, and are usually on a similar theme to the account you were visiting.

Welcome new followers

Recall how you got to this page, by starting with a hashtag, then choosing a single account you found there, which opened up dozens of accounts that you might want to follow.

Another good place to start is by finding somebody who thanks or welcomes new followers. That’s because their new followers are actively following new accounts. If you follow them, they are much more likely to follow you back than accounts that are not actively following new accounts.

Indeed, even thanking people who like, share or mention them is a good sign of highly active accounts more likely to follow you back than less active accounts.

Will you grow your followership by 100 new followers per day if you follow every piece of advice in this article?

Yes, most likely – on a good day. But it won’t happen every day. You should be able to clear 50 new followers per day almost every day. That would mean growing your Twitter account by at least 18,000 per year. And that’s a pretty good increase just by playing the numbers.

Of course, there are other things you can do to increase that number. What you post, which hashtags you use, whom you @ in your posts, how much you comment…all these things can draw new followers to you. Playing the numbers is just one way to build followers, and it shouldn’t be the only strategy you employ.